Your parents, teachers, counselors, and the media have all given you their perspective on how to navigate this world, in order to find success, professionally and personally. In this class I will give you my perspective, as someone who is old enough to look back but young enough to remember.

We all know that people from different parts of the country - the South, the East Coast, the Midwest, California, and so on - have different attitudes, behaviors, accents, politics, food, and many of the other markers of distinct cultures. In this class we will get a historical perspective on why that came to be, linking American history with Europe and the rest of the world in a way that is seldom done in the classroom. You may not see your nation in the same way afterwards.

We all know that people from different parts of the country - the South, the East Coast, the Midwest, California, and so on - have different attitudes, behaviors, accents, politics, food, and many of the other markers of distinct cultures. In this class we will get a historical perspective on why that came to be, linking American history with Europe and the rest of the world in a way that is seldom done in the classroom. You may not see your nation in the same way afterwards.

We are lucky because we get to live in a Universe that is extremely fascinating, and we are finally starting to understand it. This course will be an overview and introduction to all of the amazing and exotic stuff out there in the vastness of space. From exploding stars to death ray galaxies, to the 'dark matter' and 'dark energy' that make up almost everything, to the very nature of the universe itself, we'll touch on it all - what we know and how we know it.

We can only live in and observe one universe - fortunately the one we have is fascinating. In this class we will explore space on the largest scales, learning about what all is out there, what we know about our place in the cosmos, galaxies, dark matter, dark energy, how it all started, and where it might be going.